Hmmm, You sound very certain of yourself for something that nobody has the answer for yet. Your premise is the smooth center sleeve is slowly going to wear away the inner bore of the poly bushing. For the rubber bushings, they fail BECAUSE the inner sleeve is vulcanized to the rubber and as the rubber twists over and over and over again, the rubber finally tears when the rubber loses it's pliability from age. So, while the inner bore of the poly bushing could eventually wear down, it will most likely never tear like the OEM rubber bushings. Guys have been running poly for a long time but not quite long enough for us to know what kind of longevity they really have.

I understand what you're saying. My statement comes from using poly bushings in control arms/ suspension mounting points of Auto-x cars that I've owned/raced in the past along with cars for street use. The poly is firmer and it helps in certain instances but they wear quicker, much quicker than a OE rubber bushing.

With our 4x4 trucks, the suspensions have more articulation compared to the cars that I've "upgraded" in the past so I could see a poly bushing wearing out much quicker than a OE bushing, especially in a place like a control arm. This is why some grease is applied to the center sleeve before pressing it into a poly bushing. It's the only thing keeping the bushing from turning into dust within a matter of hours.

I'm not trying to sway anyone's opinion one way or the other, I'm just offering up some points of view that no one else has brought up.

This is good info to share. Now you've got me wondering how long all these poly bushings I've installed my control arms are going to last. I guess time will tell.

Get your self some tougher, quality poly bushings like Energy! They will have less deflection.

8.3132R - Energy Suspension Control Arm Bushing Set (Poly)

or Whiteline

W53377A - Whiteline Synthetic Elastomer Bushings

I just thought I'd chip in here on my 13-month review of the Whitelines after 22k miles. I replaced every single suspension-related bushing on my rig except the front UCA bushings. Everything still feels solid and tight. Most people don't believe its got nearly 300k and feels as solid as it does...which it definitely didnt prior to the installation. However, about 6 months ago we moved and now we live on a dirt road that is about 1.2 miles from pavement. About two months after we moved, my front LCA bushings started creaking/squeaking, and BAD. It sounds worse than it did prior to me changing all this out. I initally thought it was the front UCA's, as those are still the original, but when I disconnected the coilover to move things around its definitely the LCA. And when moving it up and down it feels very gritty. My thought is that the constant exposure to dust/fines has resulted in the impregnation of that material to the bushing, and this is the result. I am now wondering if this will quickly degrade the life of the bushings. Time will tell. Interestingly, all the bushings in the rear of the vehicle remain whisper quiet.

So my review is, if you are on dirt/mud a lot, you may consider doing OEM for front LCA. I will in the next go around.

that's interesting to read. do you ever grease them? i live on a dirt road too, and that caught my eye.

No, I'm not really aware of a way to do that other than spraying lithium grease wherever you can. Perhaps I'll try that but doubt it'll help given its a sealed system

Have fun replacing those bushings. My trusted mechanic couldn't get them out so I took on the job myself knowing that I couldn't afford to pay him hours on hours of labor trying to troubleshoot the problem.

I probably spent close to 25-30hrs or more working on getting the bushings out. It took a sawzaw, torch, air chisel, and a BFH, to get those things out. I never wish that much effort on anyone.

It seems that this varies from truck to truck. I used Timmy's (and others') method of a bottle jack and some MAPP gas, and those suckers came flying out in no time.

For me, the much bigger hassle was getting the steering rack out of the way of the lower cam bolts, which would still have to be tackled even if you buy replacement LCAs to avoid pressing out bushings.

Yea, I used Timmy's bottlejack effort. It helped some but the metal sleeve that houses the rubber bushing was seized badly. Even a hydraulic press could not get the bushing out. That's when I went with an air chisel. I carved up the LCA pretty good in the process.

Yikes, doesn't sound like fun at all. We're probably spoiled here with our CA trucks.

One thing I want to mention in this thread is, you can buy the factory LCA's with the bushings installed already. When I was looking at doing this job, I did not like the look of my LCA's anyway, so just bought whole new ones. Get a set of bolts with the cams as well while your at it, and the new lower ball joint too.

HUGE time saved NOT having to remove the old bushings. It was done one over a weekend. My old LCA's were STILL a nightmare to get out. That alone took me 3-4 hours.